What is executive functioning?

In an interview from the 1960s, Mr. Fred Rogers was explaining how young children move through stages in their development like chords on a piano. Some keys combine to make an easy transition from one chord to another, whereas there are some chord combinations like the F to the F sharp chords that are more challenging to navigate.

Mr. Rogers explained how his role is to help children navigate across life’s chords. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was a television show aimed at preschoolers where there was a focus on children’s social and emotional development. Executive functioning is necessary for children’s growth and development. Executive functioning is similar to his piano chord example because they both are processes that combine elements. Planning, organizing, self-regulating, and working memory are fundamental processes that make up executive functioning.

Our role can be to help support children with executive functioning. Mr. Rogers was a musician. A musical term that may help with this idea that we can promote executive functioning is legato. In Italian, the word legato means smooth and connected. Sometimes the music is meant to be played with smooth and connected transitions. Adults can help children with smooth developmental transitions when we observe each child’s development in executive functioning and support them as they grow.

Stress

Tonight. I went for a run on my usual route that takes me by an early care and education center in my neighborhood. I watched tired parents picking up their tired children. Stress can occur anytime, but especially at the end of a long day. Stress is a powerful force (Macy, 2018). Research has shown that too much stress can change a child’s brain (Center on Developing Child, 2014; Evans & English, 2002; Murgia, 2015).

Transitions can be stressful for children, parents, and professionals.

Adults who are responsive to children’s needs pay attention to their cues, emotional states, basic needs, and more to support a bond. Responsive caregiving where the child has an adult give them individualized attention can reduce stress for children, as well as give them strategies for coping (Center on the Developing Child, 2017; Jones & Kahn, 2017; Scudellari, 2017). Now more than ever with stressful situations occurring as a result of the changing dynamics of the global pandemic, let us pay careful attention to stress children are experiencing, and support children as they change routines or adapt to new schedules.

References

Center on the Developing Child (2014). Excessive stress disrupts the architecture of the developing brain. National Scientific Council on the Developing Child.

Center on the Developing Child (2017). Three principles to improve outcomes for children and families. Science to Policy and Practice.

Evans, G. W. & English, K. (2002). The environment of poverty: Multiple stressor exposure, psychophysiological stress, and socioemotional adjustment. Child Development, 73, 1238–1248. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00469

Jones, S. & Kahn, J. (2017). The evidence base for how we learn: Supporting students’ social emotional and academic development. The Aspen Institute.

Macy, M. (2018). Stranger danger. Buttercup Blog.

Murgia, M. (2015). How Stress Affects Your Brain. YouTube video.

Scudellari, M. (2017). Preschoolers could have less stress if they get positive one-on-one time with teachers. The Boston Globe.

Intended Purpose

Have you ever tried to make a cup of hot chocolate but when you went to the cupboard you did not have cocoa mix? Well it happened to me. I recently wanted to drink a yummy cup of hot chocolate only to find that there was none in my house.

What’s a person to do?! Well I had some baking cocoa. I thought why not try baking cocoa and see if I could make hot chocolate with baking cocoa.

Hmmmmmmmm????

What a disaster! Do not try this unless you want to have caked on bitter cocoa stuck to your teeth! It tasted horrible.

I was trying to use an ingredient for something other than its intended purpose.

Baking cocoa is meant to go into recipes like cookies, NOT make a delicious cup of hot chocolate.

I learned something important that day and that is to use ingredients and materials for their intended purpose. When I substituted baking cocoa for hot chocolate mix it did not work. Major FAIL!

Similarly, when we assess children we want to use assessment tools for their intended purpose. For example, using a diagnostic assessment would not work well if we wanted to do ongoing assessment of individual children over time to see how well they are learning/developing and responding to their early childhood curriculum and instruction. The best tool for that purpose would be a curriculum-based assessment (CBA). My colleagues and I are publishing a new edition of a widely used CBA called the AEPS3® (Bricker, Dionne, Grisham, Johnson, Macy, Slentz, & Waddell, 2022) for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners. It would be a useful tool if the intention is gather information about children’s development and learning, as well as have a curriculum to use with instruction.

When assessment is used for the intended purpose, results can be meaningful for children.

Source:

Bricker, D., Dionne, C., Grisham, J., Johnson, J.J., Macy, M., Slentz, K., & Waddell, M. (2022). Assessment, Evaluation, and Programming System for Infants and Children, Third Edition (AEPS®-3). Baltimore: Brookes Publishing Co.

“Children are NOW!”

It happened. The year that brought so much unhappiness to many people around the globe has passed. Goodbye, 2020. Hello, 2021. They say, “Time heals all wounds.” Hopefully, over time the suffering and pain from 2020 will subside. Hopeful for the future. One of my favorite Italian words that reflects this sense of hope is avanti—full steam ahead.

During the global pandemic I had the privilege of learning from people from around the world about issues impacting young children and their families resulting from COVID-19. The diverse group was brought together by UNESCO. An advocate for children’s rights and humanitarian issues, Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands said, “Children are NOW!” She said she was fed up with people saying, “children are the future.” I am hopeful NOW for the road ahead, because I know how resilient we are. Children are NOW!

HRH Laurentien of the Netherlands

In addition to child advocates, filmmakers have done incredible work to help better understand children NOW. If you’re interested in checking out their films which explore child development, I’ve got three to share with you.

1. “Becoming You”

2. “Babies”

3. “7Up”

“Becoming You” is available on Apple+ and released in 2020. This docuseries focuses on the first 2,000 days of life. The Becoming You series is directed by the creative brain of Tom Barbor-Might. His cinematic skills takes us on a visually stunning journey. Becoming You is narrated by Olivia Colman who plays the Queen in the “Crown.” There is one season of Becoming You with a total of six episodes which I’ve described next and indicated how long the episode runs.

1.     Who am I? (39 minutes)

2.     Moving (43 minutes)

3.     Making Friends (43 minutes)

4.     Feeling (41 minutes)

5.     Talking (41 minutes)

6.     Thinking (41 minutes)

All six episodes of Becoming You are fabulous but my favorite is the one about talking. Check it out and learn about the “Seuss boost,” what the brain thinks about rhymes, multilingualism, how deaf families use hand babbling with their babies learning sign language, and the amazing little girl named Riley who is from South Florida. My friend told me about this resource. I hope you tell your friends too. Thank you for always thinking of me to pass on this cool stuff, Tonya Schadle.

“Babies” is available on Netflix and released in 2020. This docuseries is focused on research related to child development. The latest and state-of-the-art research is presented in an interesting way with relevant information parents and early childhood educators can use. Like the Becoming You docuseries, the Babies docuseries will take you around the World to gorgeous countries. In addition to the on-location sites, Babies and Becoming You will introduce you to the most precious children and their families. What a treat to meet these people who are sharing their homes, culture, and languages with us viewers. There are two seasons of Babies with a total of twelve episodes which I’ve described next and indicated how long the episode runs.

Part 1.

1.     Love (48 minutes)

2.     First Food (52 minutes)

3.     Crawling (53 minutes)

4.     First Words (51 minutes)

5.     Sleep (49 minutes)

6.     First Steps (50 minutes)

Part 2.

1.     What Babies Know (55 minutes)

2.     Movement (53 minutes)

3.     Senses (50 minutes)

4.     Relationships (52 minutes)

5.     Nature and Nurture (47 minutes)

6.     Toddlers (46 minutes)

“7Up” is available on Amazon and/or other places where you get your documentaries. The Up Series is directed by Michael Apted who sadly died on Friday at the age of 79. Apted started this series in 1964. He and his team followed the same children over time into adulthood. Every 7 years the conversations with participants would pick up where it left off. We get to know 14 British children who are interviewed by Apted in seven year intervals. There are multiple episodes of the Up Series which I’ve described next and indicated how long the episode runs.

1.     1964 – 7 Up (31 minutes)

2.     1970 – 14 Up (53 minutes)

3.     1977 – 21 Up (100 minutes)

4.     1984 – 28 Up (40 minutes) Part 1

5.     1984 – 28 Up (62 minutes) Part 2

6.     1984 – 28 Up (74 minutes) Part 3

7.     1991 – 35 Up (116 minutes)

8.     1998 – 42 Up (134 minutes)

9.     2005 – 49 Up (136 minutes)

10.2012 – 56 Up (47 minutes) Part 1

11.2012 – 56 Up (47 minutes) Part 2

12.2012 – 56 Up (50 minutes) Part 3

13.2019 – 63 Up (47 minutes)

I first started watching the Up Series when I was a graduate student at the University of Oregon in the early 2000s. One of my professors recommended it to me when we were discussing longitudinal research designs. I was hooked.

“Becoming You,” “Babies,” and “7Up” examine issues related to early childhood development. Do yourself a favor and take a master class by watching one, two, or all these fantastic docuseries in 2021. What will we do with what we know? We must address the needs of young children NOW. Avanti!

Child Find via Mail

Today is my last blog of a four-part series on Child Find activities that are virtual and/or remote. Last month (September), I wrote about doing a virtual home visit for Child Find. In July, I wrote about how to do Child Find using an online system. In May, I wrote about using a phone for Child Find efforts.

The previous three Child Find virtual/remote activities involved some form of technology and/or electronics.  Good old fashioned snail mail will be today’s topic for conducting Child Find when face-to-face options are unavailable, unsafe, or unrealistic.

Connecting children with services is a critical concern in the face of the global pandemic resulting from the Coronavirus. Child Find is a system that focuses on early identification of delays and/or disabilities in children. In America, Child Find has been in existence since 1975 when Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children’s Act was passed by congress. Today we call this law the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The intent of IDEA Child Find is, “to create and implement a system to actively locate…children with disabilities.” There are many ways to actively locate children who may be eligible for IDEA services due to a delay or disability. One way is through developmental screening through the postal system or mail delivery.

If someone close to the child (e.g., parent, family member, familiar caregiver) has a concern, they can contact their local provider(s) who could follow up on their concern by conducting a developmental screening assessment  via mail. Yes, I said mail. Remember envelopes, stamps, and paper?!?! Are you thinking this sounds outdated? Maybe. Maybe not.

Professionals conducting Child Find efforts from a distance may find the postal service a useful tool as an alternative to face-to-face options. A procedure for Child Find by mail would be where staff mail a developmental questionnaire to the child’s address on record. Parent(s) and/or familiar caregiver(s) complete the developmental questionnaire and mail back to the staff or central location for scoring and feedback.

Special considerations should be made for children and families experiencing homelessness. Three other considerations are: (a) provide postage so parents do not have to worry about paying to mail the return envelope to the Child Find professional, (b) have the correct mailing address for families, and (c) keep in mind that this method of Child Find takes time for deliveries and there could be problems with sending and receiving the physical mail from the postal service. Return rates for questionnaires can be increased with a variety of strategies, for example making reminder phone calls to parents and sending a second questionnaire and reminder if the first one isn’t returned.

For more information, check out the Child Find book (above) and/or a webinar I made called “Child Find: Identifying Children for IDEA Services in a Remote and Virtual Context.” I made this webinar for the Brookes Coffee Chat series and it is now available on demand at the following link:

https://brookespublishing.com/resource-library/child-find-identifying-children-for-idea-services-in-a-remote-and-virtual-context/

Child Find Using Phone

Connecting children with services they need is a concern in the face of the global pandemic resulting from Covid-19. Child Find is a system that focuses on early identification of delays and/or disabilities in children.

In America, Child Find has been in existence since 1975 when P.L. 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children’s Act, was passed by congress. Today we call this law the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The intent of IDEA Child Find is, “to create and implement a system to actively locate…children with disabilities.” There are many ways to actively locate children who may be eligible for IDEA services due to a delay or disability. One way is through developmental screening over the phone.

If someone close to the child (e.g., parent, family member, familiar caregiver) has a concern, they can contact their local provider(s) who could follow up on their concern by conducting a developmental screening assessment with them over the phone. A phone interview would consist of the professional using their developmental screening instrument to guide them in asking questions over the phone.

Questions are derived from the screener. Questions from the developmental screening instrument could be filled out by the professional based on answers provided over the phone by the person familiar with the child.

Considerations for using the phone to conduct developmental screening include: (a) arrange a time for the phone interview that is optimal for parent(s), (b)  allow for the possibility for the child to participate in the phone interview because the parent may need time to interact with the child in order to determine if the child can do a skill, and (c) conduct the interview in the family’s preferred language.

Once the interview is finished the professional could score the screening while the parent is still on the phone and share results, or scoring could be done later and results shared at another time.

Follow up is a critical part of the process and should be done in a timely manner. Follow up with the parent with results of the screening assessment. Share resources and recommendations for next steps.

The phone interview is a strategy that can be used when a remote context is needed like during a quarantine. However, a phone interview strategy to conduct IDEA Child Find can be used anytime when a phone interview can help screen children.

For more information check out this webinar called “Child Find: Identifying Children for IDEA Services in a Remote and Virtual Context.” I made this webinar for the Brookes Coffee Chat series and it is now available on demand at the following link:

https://brookespublishing.com/resource-library/child-find-identifying-children-for-idea-services-in-a-remote-and-virtual-context/

Stranger Danger

It can be hard for us to have empathy for strangers because they STRESS US OUT. Research is showing that being around strangers increases stress and decreases empathy. Dr. Jeffrey Mogil, a researcher from Canada, has been conducting studies on emotional contagion. One experiment is simply putting two people who have never met in a room. Stress levels increase (e.g., heart beat increases, sweaty palms, etc.), and empathy for the stranger decreases.

Another experiment involves having research participants soak their hands in a freezing cold bucket of ice for thirty seconds and having them rate their pain.

1. One condition is having a person do the ice bucket by themselves.

2. Another condition is having a person and a stranger do the ice bucket together.

3. And then the third condition is a person does the ice bucket experiment with a friend.

Ice Bucket Experiment

They found that being alone, and with strangers, resulted in about the same amount of pain. However, the condition with friends resulted in more pain. Interesting! 

My guess was that pain would decrease if there was a friend for support. “We’re in this together.” “I can get through anything with this awesome friend by my side.” This was not the case.

A possible explanation for the finding is empathy. We feel more pain when we do the experiment with a friend. When our friend is experiencing pain, our own pain increases. We have our own pain + a little bit more from our friend. Research shows that we have emotional empathy for friends, however not for strangers. No wonder it is so hard to put ourselves in another person’s shoes at times, and take their perspective when they are a stranger to us.

Does being around strangers increase stress + decrease empathy? Yes!

Another thing the emotional contagion researchers did was experiment with games and play. They found that when the strangers played a video game called Rock Band for a half hour their stress decreased and their empathy increased. So more support for the power of play. Yay! Simply playing a game together for a half hour can make a meaningful difference. 

Rock Band Game

Many caregivers tell children, “do NOT talk to strangers.” We do this to protect our little ones. One of my favorite quotes I use in my assessment class is from the theorist, Dr. Urie Bronfenbrenner. He said we examine, “the strange behavior of children in strange situations with STRANGE ADULTS for the briefest possible periods of time” (1979, p. 19).

Dr. Urie Bronfenbrenner

He wrote this decades ago. In many situations, we still conduct early childhood assessments today the way Bronfenbrenner described in the 1979 quote. There should be better ways to do assessment. 

When unfamiliar adults assess children, we may not see the child's true abilities and skills. Children are taught not to talk to strangers. And what do we do... we sometimes assess children when the assessor is a stranger. Take for instance a speech and language assessment where the assessor is diagnosing a delay or disorder. If  the assessor is a stranger and the child is taught not to talk to strangers,  an accurate diagnosis may be difficult. 

We can apply some of the research out of neuroscience and play with children. Allow the child to get to know the assessor via play before, during, and after an assessment. The result may be a more accurate picture of the child's abilities and development. 

Sources:

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Mogil, J.S. (2012). Pain genetics: Past, present and future. Trends in Genetics, 28, 258-266.

Mogil, J.S. (2015). Social modulation of and by pain in humans and rodents. Pain, 156 (Suppl. 1), S35-41.

Animals Strike Curious Poses

One day physicist Dr. Helen Czerski visited a pond in Winchester in the south of England. She noticed a little girl asking her mother a curious question. The child wanted to know why the duck she was observing didn’t get cold feet. Hmmm… Young children are naturally inquisitive about their surroundings and they ask awesome questions! Their sense of inquiry comes natural to them. I have visited many early childhood classrooms to observe my student teachers. I try not to be seen. I prefer to be like a fly on the wall, however young children usually want to know who I am and why I am there. They generally notice when something is out of place in the environment. Children are relentless seekers of information. Adults can support children by being responsive to their inquiry. We can even try being more like children by following some age-old advice from Jane Austen, “indulge your imagination in every possible flight” (Austen, 1813- Pride and Prejudice).

Abecedarian

The term “abecedarian” means to learn the rudiments of something, or alphabetical arrangement. In educational circles, the Abecedarian Project refers to a study which explores the impact of early childhood education on babies who were born between 1972 and 1977. Researchers have been following the babies across their lifespan to determine the impact early childhood educational opportunities have on them. I am so lucky to be able to talk with interesting, smart, and charismatic leaders on our Buttercup iTunes show. Recently, I got a chance to talk with Dr. Craig Ramey who pioneered the legendary Abecedarian Project.

It is amazing to me how researchers can conduct longitudinal studies without losing participants over time. Attrition, or participants dropping out of a study, can be a problem in research. When I asked Dr. Ramey about this he said that as a researcher he tries to share his appreciation for their contribution and treat participants with respect. He and his team do things like send birthday and holiday greeting cards to participants. The work he and his team do to maintain participation by the people in their study has proven a successful strategy because the babies are turning 45 years old this year and are still participating in the Abecedarian Project.

Thank you to Drs. Craig and Sharon Ramey and all involved in the Abecedarian study for your major contribution to child development research. Check out the podcast to hear Dr. Ramey discuss the interesting things they have found about the importance of early childhood education, as well as implications for policy development. http://www.marisamacy.com/podcast/

Dr. Craig Ramey

Time

I can make a proper French onion soup, or onion soup gratinée. Thank you, CIA! The main ingredients are simple—onions and chicken broth. Oh and sherry! The soup’s flavor comes from time. In order to develop the correct flavor, the onions need to cook slowly so they can become caramelized and acquire a deep rich color like espresso. Care needs to be taken so the onions don’t burn.

Gratinée means browned. The brown coloring comes from the onions being scraped on the pot with a wooden spoon for about an hour. Chicken (NOT beef) broth is poured over the onions once they have reached perfection.

Many cooks take a shortcut when making onion soup by using brown beef stock (for the color) instead of chicken stock. Shortcuts can save time. Shortcuts can sometimes make life easier. Shortcuts do not lead to optimal outcomes. 

A professor of mine at the University of Oregon once wrote an article about the tyranny of time. He showed how missed opportunities for students in special education can have a significant outcome on child well being and school success. The earlier we can address a child's needs can make a big difference for the child and his/her family.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has a component called Child Find where it is the lead agency's responsibility to locate children eligible for services in a timely manner. No shortcuts, please. Early identification of a delay or disability is of paramount importance in the lives of little ones. Time matters in childhood. 

Macy making onion soup gratinée at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA)